Meditate Awake

Mindset researchers Nussbaum and Dweck wanted to find out what kind of feedback people seek after a struggle. They set up a study in which they asked participants to take a difficult test — and then they told the participants that they’d done badly. Immediately afterwards, everyone was offered a choice: they could either look at the tests of people who had done worse than them, or look at the tests of people who had done better. You might remember that we’ve talked about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset before; and the results of this study were clear. People with a fixed mindset asked to see the tests of people who had done worse, and those with a growth mindset wanted to look at the tests of those who had done better. So a fixed mindset motivates you to seek consolation and validation; but a growth mindset makes you want to learn.